Re: Defining the word "Aiki" and looking at the phenomenon it describes.

By the way, I'm not only talking about not buckling the torso, I'm talking about all the joints (shoulders, elbows, etc.).

Quote:

Chris Hein wrote:

Ok, good we agree there, I would say the same thing myself.

Once I read someone ( I really wish that I could remember who) speaking of "centered" and "grounded". This person said that "grounded" was like wearing rubber soled shoes on a smooth marble floor, you stick to the floor and have lots of traction. He then said that being "centered" is like wearing wool socks on that same floor, and if anyone pushed you you would simply slide around, but not fall over. I don't know why, but when I first heard this years ago, it was very clear to me what this man meant by "centered" and "grounded". And that if you could be both centered and grounded, you would seem quite powerful.

So, if the above example is clear, I would say solid structure is like centering. The better you can hold your body, in whatever position it's in, the more structure you have, the more "centered" you'd be. Alignment is like grounding from the above. That's your ability to "stick" (for lack of a better word) to the ground.

If you're both centered, and grounded from the above, or have both structure and alignment, as I describe now, no matter what configuration you're in, you would be rather difficult to move.

How does this sound to you?

Ok, so you say that by being centered you mean you hold the body by structure so that it won't buckle. I'd kind of expect that the structure would be fairly rigid, so you'd be easily toppled, so you wouldn't stick to the ground very well.

But you say you can be non-buckling (centered as you call it) and grounded in any position. To me that sounds a lot like "C". Are you saying you learned to do it in two years? And are you saying it was actually just a couple of tricks and athletic training?